US natural gas futures on Thursday turned slightly positive following the release of a government report showing a smaller-than-expected storage build. The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) said utilities added 78 billion cubic feet (bcf) of gas into storage during the week ended September 6.
That was a little lower than the 82-bcf build analysts forecast in a Reuters poll and compares with an injection of 68 bcf during the same week last year and a five-year (2014-18) average build of 73 bcf for the period. The addition last week boosted stockpiles to 3.019 trillion cubic feet (tcf), 2.5% below the five-year average of 3.096 tcf for this time of year.
The amount of gas in inventory has remained below the five-year average since September 2017. It fell as low as 33% below that average in March 2019. But with production near a record high, analysts said, stockpiles should reach a near-normal 3.7 tcf by the end of the summer injection season on October 31.
Front-month gas futures for October delivery on the New York Mercantile Exchange were up 1.8 cents, or 0.7%, to $2.570 per million British thermal units at 10:39 am EDT (1439 GMT). That keeps the contract within a couple cents of Monday's $2.585 close, its highest settle since May 29. Before the EIA released the report, the front-month was down 0.5% on forecasts for less cooling demand next week than previously expected.
With Thursday's price increase, however, the contract remained up about 27% over a recent three-year low of $2.029 per mmBtu on Aug. 5, keeping it in overbought territory for an eighth day in a row for the first time since November 2018.